Further Adventures of the Last Lawnbender

Shortly after I last used the mower, (and it was totally not my fault, really and truly) the steering mechanism went all wonkity (design flaw, says my dad) and would get stuck in a turning position.  This was useful for mowing around trees (and around and around), or for making interesting polkadot patterns in the front yard, but it made going in straight lines rather difficult.  And though I always say, when questioned about my lawn-mowing, "I'm an artist;  I don't do straight lines", straight lines are occasionally useful.  Like for taking the mower down to The Flat.  (The thought of heading down the road in a series of big slow loops amuses me, but I don't really want to try it.  Well, not fervently, anyway.  Though on the other hand, it might be kind of fun...)
So the grass was deep again, and with the added feature of the big downed tree

and I had to keep stopping to drag branches and sticks out of the way.  Well, the ones that I didn't hit with the mower, anyway.  I'm sure the mower always wanted to be a wood chipper when it grew up.
But I want to go on record that I actually bent the entire lawn without having to call my dad to come rescue me!   (And for those who don't know me, I'm in my 60's and my dad is in his 80's.  Which just goes to prove that your kids will always need you, no matter how old they are.)

On the indoor front, here's something I meant to share earlier.  While I was assembling the last of the nine patches I needed to finish Katie's Star Patch, I found a 1.5" strip of Garfield fabric that was just long enough to make one more nine patch, with enough that I could fussy cut to get Garfield bits into each square.  This was a fabric from her childhood with great sentimental value, and I was patting myself on the back that I'd ooched out one more square with the very last of it

until I found these pieces in a box about an hour later...

 And for one more giggle, I was quilting the swap quilt (It's okay to look, Liz - you can't tell much from this photo) and realized I didn't have a marker pencil that would show up on the dark fabric.  So I did this:

safety-pinned a paper arc to the quilt, and quilted along the edge.  Then repeated that for each side of the square, then again for the other squares.
Do not try this at home;  I am a trained professional...